Art For Pete's Sake Poem by Donal Mahoney

Pete reads a story about an artist
who never sold a painting until he was 80
and then sold one for a million dollars.

Finding the artist on the internet, Pete says
his work is just odd shapes in bright colors.
Another Jackson Pollock, Pete says, whose

work Pete views as dry paint dripping,
an acquired taste he has never acquired.
For him, abstract art has no appeal.

He prefers paintings of a velvet Elvis
or sad dogs playing poker at a table.
Pete has taste, informed as it is.